The Nativity of St. John the Baptist

🌼 St John’s Tide Play 💧Free doll tutorial in my website shop

I’ve seen so many lovely solstice posts I’ve the past days, Summer has officially arrived. Tomorrow as Catholics we celebrate the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, known also as St John’s Tide and I thought there was no better way to involve the little one in the day than to make a doll for play and storytelling. I thought I would give you a little background on this important date in the liturgical calendar.

John the Baptist, Jesus’s cousin, is one of the most important figures in the Bible and he is the only Saint to which the church have a solemnity (the highest honour of the Church) on his birthday and the day he died, as opposed to a feast day the day he died. John was conceived six months prior to Jesus and so the Nativity of John the Baptist is celebrated six months before Christmas.

Writings from the time as well as the Gospels recount large crowds following him as he prepared them for the coming of the Messiah, indeed many believed he was the messiah, but he never took advantage of their spirituality, instead sending them to Jesus when the time came, and then slowly, selflessly disappearing into the background. In the Gospel of John he writes that John the Baptist said “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn 3:30) A direct mirror of nature between the summer and winter solstice. So from his birth on the 24th June as Christians we pave the way for Christ’s coming, in prayer we decrease ourselves, our earthly desires to allow Christ to increase in us, for us to do good work here on earth, in love, in hope, in charity, for our fellow human beings.

Many celebrate the Eve of St John’s Tide light fires heralding of Jesus, who is “the light of the world” (Jn 8:12) traditions no doubt carried over from ancestors long before Christianity. Swimming is also popular in some countries, as well as splashing each other with water, symbolic of baptism. Some people bring branches in the home to symbolise John’s life in the wilderness.

We will be celebrating tomorrow with some storytelling and water play! How do you celebrate midsummer? Cont in comments…